Master Cleanse Diet = Master Scam

I’ve railed many times against fad diets in this column. And today, an article in the New York Times prompts me to debunk the so-called Master Cleanse diet.

Many of you have heard of the “amazing” results and other glowing testimonials about this patently absurd diet in which you essentially fast for 10 days, living on a drink made from water, lemon juice, maple syrup and cayenne pepper. This is basically a starvation diet, nearly guaranteed to take off a few pounds in the short run, but just as guaranteed to put them back after it’s done. No one can survive very long on such a starvation diet, and many people find it extremely difficult even to complete it.

So let’s take a look at the components of this diet. Nearly all of it consists of water, which is essential for life, but is of no nutritional value. Next comes the maple syrup. This is the sole source of calories in the diet and prevents you from starving at a faster rate than if it were not included. The calories come from the sugar in the maple syrup. Why maple syrup? No reason except to make it sound esoteric and magical. As far as your body is concerned, sugar is sugar. Next, we add some lemon juice. Essentially, this drink is a form of lemonade using maple syrup instead of plain sugar. What does a lemon contain that makes it so important? Nothing! Lemon juice is a weak acid as is vinegar. The amount of acid already in your stomach is orders of magnitude higher than the little bit of added acid from the lemon juice, so it is essentially like spitting in the ocean. Does lemon have any other magical properties that might help “detoxify” the body or otherwise aid in weight loss? Absolutely not! Last is the cayenne pepper. The only possible effect of this substance is to irritate the lining of the GI tract and to potentially cause diarrhea.

In fact, this entire diet is basically similar to some laxatives and taking a laxative tea is also recommended along with the lemonade. Laxative abuse is, unfortunately, an all too common form of misguided dieting. Laxatives decrease the time waste products remain in the colon. Their effect is to increase the expulsion of water only, the nutrients have already been absorbed higher up in the GI tract, and the colon is primarily a water retainer. The problem for babies and the elderly who have diarrhea is that they cannot replace the water they are losing fast enough. The only “fortunate” thing about this diet is the intake of excess water, which may help prevent you from becoming dehydrated. It may also help hydrate the skin, which is why many people report better looking skin while on the program.

Some will doubtless argue that this isn’t really a diet but is intended to be a “detoxification” program. We all know, however, that it is being widely used as a diet. But let’s take a look at detoxification. While it is true that the body absorbs a variety of toxic materials from the environment, the important thing to understand is that either the body already has a mechanism to remove the toxins or it does not. The body uses the liver, kidneys, GI tract and the lungs to rid itself of many toxic materials. This is normal. Some toxins, however, cannot be eliminated normally because they build up in “hidden” locations such as fat tissue or within the airways (think of miner’s lung disease). Some of these toxins can be removed using highly sophisticated medical treatments, but some can’t and some people who work with certain toxic chemicals can die from this exposure. Most importantly, however, is that drinking this peppered lemonade could not in any possible way eliminate any of these toxins.

It is really unfortunate how much hype and misinformation there is about this idea of “toxins.” The vast majority of what you hear about toxins is simply untrue. This is because these nebulous factors are never identified as being anything specific. It’s purely scare tactics designed to convince you that your body is somehow dirty and must be cleansed. This is pure nonsense. There are real toxins, as alluded to above, but these can be named and identified. Eat a high fish diet and you’re likely to absorb more mercury than you should. That’s a real toxin. And if you think the Master Cleanse or any other cleansing procedure is going to remove mercury from your body, you are 100 percent wrong.

In summary, the Master Cleanse program is basically a way to starve yourself, with just enough sugar to keep you going for a few days. The lemon juice and cayenne pepper add nothing as we’ve seen above. If you don’t eat for a few weeks, you’ll lose some weight. If you don’t eat for a few months, you’ll die. And in either case, if you start eating again (before you die of course), the weight will come back. It’s only a matter of time.

The only diet that can work over a long time is to eat a little bit less and to exercise a little bit more. A few hundred less calories in and a few hundred extra calories burned off, and you’ve changed your basic metabolic equation. That could be as easy as one less soda and walking a few extra blocks (the effect may not be extreme, but neither were the changes). Neither part of the program is so severe that it can’t be maintained over the long haul. Starving, however, surely cannot.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ed Zimney, MD

Ed is a physician with more than 30 years of experience. He’s held positions in drug advertising review, drug safety surveillance, medical information and marketing with several bio/pharmaceutical companies.